(REVIEW) “Popcorn With The Pope: A Guide to the Vatican Film List” is a solid primer for those interested in movies and faith beyond summer blockbusters or standard faith-based fare and don’t know where to start. Even Christian cinephiles will likely find it largely redundant.

Christians and Hollywood have long had a testy relationship, with the church often been in the position of wagging their finger at the latest assault on faith and morals plastered across screens or creating their own lesser quality knockoffs. At the same time, Hollywood was either thumbing their noses at the church or trying desperately to accommodate it without understanding fith.

In 1995, the Catholic Church — under the direction of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the Vatican Film Library — decided to take steps to change this relationship by creating a list of movies that the Vatican affirms, rather than just critiques, in three categories: “Religion,” “Values” and “Art.”

READ: The Top 10 Faith-Based Films Of 2023

“Popcorn With The Pope,” published by Word On Fire, lays out this history in its introduction, then dedicates the rest of the book to a series of essays on each of the films on the Vatican’s film list — each one unpacking a deeper appreciation of each of the films. These essays are written alternatively by film critic Dr. David Paul Baird, author Andrew Petiprin (“Truth Matters”) and author Dr. Michael Ward (“Planet Narnia”). Like all good Christian books, each essay also ends with discussion questions so that people can engage with these topics with others.

The purpose of the book, as the intro lays out, is largely twofold: First, to continue the Vatican’s vision of creating more conversation between the work of artists (particularly filmmakers) and the work of the church. Second, to help those who want help in engaging more deeply with the spiritual and artistic merits of great works of filmmaking. The first it can’t help but do as each essay delves into the deeper themes of the work from a Catholic perspective, bringing the two into conversation. The effectiveness of the second largely depends on what stage a reader is on their film appreciation journey.  

As a Christian who’s also a big lover of film and thinking deeply about them, I am excited anytime I see people trying to encourage more Christians to think deeper about what they watch. Some of my favorite memories are of me sitting at dinner with my family discussing how theology applied to the recent movie we had watched. I particularly remember a rousing discussion of “Bednobs and Broomsticks” that had some of its contents make its way into one of my dad’s sermons. It’s one of the things I try inspire with my film criticism and podcast work. It’s always great when you see a publisher like like Word on Fire put out work like that encourages this as well.

The authors do a good job of unpacking, in a basic way, some of the deeper themes of the movies on the Vatican’s film list. Whether it's “8 1/2,” “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” “The Bicycle Thieves,” “Modern Times” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the critics uncover ways in which faithful Christians can see God’s truth or beauty in the aesthetics of the filmmaking — whether or not it has an overtly Christian message.

Whether that’s how the characters draw our attention to different ways of dealing with death in “Seventh Seal” or how “The Gospel of Matthew” uses long, slow takes to get us to pay attention to the solemnity of what is happening.

That said, the limits of the book’s premise — one essay per each of the 45 movies on the list — prevents the author’s from doing much more than scratch the surface. This means that anyone who is already a fan of high art movies or has taken an intro to film class and engaged at all briefly with Christians in the film criticism space will likely find it redundant. It really works best as a primer to introduce you to that world if you’re new to it. Ideally, it’s a gift to that one Christian teen that you know who loves movies but doesn’t know where to start.

The authors also kind of want to have it both ways with the film list, admitting that it’s not really representative of the best movies ever made, but merely a suggested list for engaging with quality works of art. Accepting those limits, the essays are every bit as thoughtful and enjoyable as you would expect from thoughtful Christian writers and cinephiles.

Movies like “On The Waterfront,” “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” and “Ben Hur” all are represented and unpacked with clarity and insight both positive and negative. The Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life,” for example, is praised as a great encapsulation of the dignity of the individual and his importance to the rest of humankind while still noting that people don’t become angels.

In the end, “Popcorn and The Pope” is another step in the right direction for encouraging a thoughtful engagement between faith and the arts. For those who want a first taste of the conversations that can be had between faith and high cinema, this book could be just what your clergyman ordered. 

“Popcorn With The Pope: A Guide to the Vatican Film List” is available from Word On Fire Bookstore, Amazon or wherever books are sold.

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Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at his website josephholmesstudios.com.